It is said that after the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine wrote to Jefferson that he did not know which “revolution” Jefferson was speaking of, because the principal revolution was not the struggle fought and won by the people in the cities, mountains, and plains of that land. The true revolution, he said, was the one that had already taken place in the minds and thought of the people before all those battles; everything that followed was only the result and outward embodiment of that revolution.

The accompanying image is from today’s protest gathering of students at Al-Zahra University.

It is a magnificent image of a revolution that has already succeeded.

A simple image of respect for the human right to choose, promising an end to a great suffering for the magnificent women of our land.

This beautiful image is not an image of tomorrow’s Iran. It is a beautiful image of today’s Iran, announcing the end of an era.

What remains is to stand by the ideals of a revolution that has already triumphed in the minds of Iran’s present generations.

In this victory, nothing will be defeated except falsehood, pretence, and hypocrisy.

Aydin Areta